Friday, March 16, 2012

Frankie here. I’m in Philadelphia for the next couple of days attending the Public Library Association annual conference. I’m serving as National President of Sisters in Crime this year, and we have a SinC panel on Friday afternoon. It should be interesting, but since it hasn’t happened yet, I’ll have to wait to write about it.

I’m mentioning it now because during our preparation for the panel, our moderator asked us to think about the first book that we read that made a difference in our lives.

I confess. I couldn’t remember. Nothing came to mind. The problem was I tried to start at the beginning. I tried to remember the first book I had ever read on my own – assuming that would have been the book that set me on my lifelong path as someone who reads, who must read, who feels anxiety when she has no book or at least a magazine close at hand.

But I couldn’t remember that first book or the second or what I checked out the day that I got my library card.

My parents did not read to me when I was a child. They were hard-working blue-collar folks. Neither of them had graduated from high school, barely finished grammar school. But they valued education and books and reading, so they made sure I always had access to books. And I had cousins who were teachers, at high schools and later at university level. So I had books in my world.

But I can’t remember the first book my parents bought me. I can’t remember the first book I read on my own.

Is it just me? Am I the only one with jumbled odds and ends of Dick and Jane and Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole and the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and DC comic books? Robert Frost -- I loved Frost’s two paths in the woods. And Poe’s raven and Emily Dickinson’s buzzing fly. I love animals. I thought I would become a vet, so I must have read animal stories. Peter Rabbit? The Wind in the Willows?

Those were the days when students still memorized speeches such as Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!” (I’m a Virginian). Then there was Shakespeare. One play each year. The poetry and the speeches and the dramatic monologues are all jumbled up in my head with the books.

In short, I have no idea which book gave me the urge to keep reading. Maybe it wasn’t one book. Maybe it was the joy of reading that reinforced my urge to read.

I’ve always been fascinated by people who say they never read. When I hear this I wonder if it is because they didn’t grow up with books or with parents who valued literacy. Or was it because during their school years they were force-fed books about topics that bored them and once freed from school, they vowed never to open another book? Or, is it really, as some people will say, that they just don’t have the time to read? If they have spare time they’d rather spend it with their family and friends than with head buried in a book.

In truth, reading is an activity that can be isolating. A wonderful activity for shy, introverted children. But also one that keeps them from interacting with other people and perhaps reinforces their tendency to retreat into their own fantasy worlds.

But perhaps that is why some of us became writers when we grew up. And I like to think that at some point we all learned how to make small talk – at least about books.

At any rate, I do remember the book that I loved most as a teenager and checked out again and again from the library. The book was by an author named Agnes Sligh Turnbull. The Day Must Dawn, set on the frontier during the Revolutionary War era.

I really do need to track down a copy of that book and buy it. Then I’ll read it again on a Saturday evening, sitting up in bed with Starlight mints on the night stand. I’ll read beyond my bedtime, and hear in my memory my mother calling to me to turn off my light and go to sleep.

5 comments:

Actually, I remember this Frankie. It was Hoot Owl when I was in the first grade. I had finished the whatever and the teacher let us pick out a book to read on our own. When I did and discovered I was offered the chance to read a real story instead of stupid lines like "Spot has the ball." "See Jane chase the ball," I literally flipped.

"Pricken" or Spotty in english, by the De Reys was the first book i read by myself at the age of seven. Enid Blyton's Mystery books and Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories started me off on mysteries at nine. When i found some grown-up detective stories and thrillers at home and at the local library i was lost forever. I read almost all the classics of the genre between the age of ten and fifteen. The one i will always remember, though, is "The Nine Tailors" by Dorothy Sayers. Read at ten at my fathers house one rainy summer day it was re-read twice a year, and that meant every time i was visiting. It still counts as one of the best mysteries of all time, at least in my mind. Asimov, another crime story lover, writing as Paul French, hooked me on one of my other favourite genres, Science Fiction, with the juvenile "David Starr, Space Hunter" that was in part a mystery, set on Mars...

I would have a hard time with this question too. I remember specific books/series that I loved but there was no one book. I would say that Harriet the Spy was the first book I specifically remember re-reading. But I was the kid who got a box of books each Christmas (my parents got me, they really got me) so the idea of pointing to 1 book as important is an almost impossible task.

Rick Blechta writes on Tuesdays

Barbara Fradkin writes on alternate Wednesdays

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Frankie Bailey writes on Alternate Fridays

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Aline Templeton

Aline Templeton lives in Edinburgh in a house with a balcony overlooking the beautiful city skyline. Her series featuring DI Marjory Fleming is set in beautiful Galloway, in South-west Scotland. alinetempleton.co.uk

Rick Blechta

Rick has two passions in life, mysteries and music, and his thrillers contain liberal doses of both. He has two upcoming releases, Roses for a Diva, his sequel to The Fallen One, for Dundurn Press, and for Orca’s Rapid Reads series, The Boom Room, a second book featuring detectives Pratt & Ellis. You can learn more about what he’s up to at www.rickblechta.com. From the musical side, Rick leads a classic soul band in Toronto. Check out SOULidifiedband.com. And lastly, being a former line cook with an interest in all things culinary, he has a blog dedicated to food: A Man for All Seasonings.

Barbara Fradkin

Barbara Fradkin is a retired psychologist with a fascination for how we turn bad. Her dark short stories haunt the Ladies Killing Circle anthologies, but she is best known for her award-winning series featuring the quixotic, exasperating Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green, published by Dundurn Press. The ninth book, The Whisper of Legends, was published in April 2013. Visit Barbara at barbarafradkin.com.

Sybil Johnson

Sybil Johnson’s love affair with reading began in kindergarten with “The Three Little Pigs.” Visits to the library introduced her to Encyclopedia Brown, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and a host of other characters. Fast forward to college where she continued reading while studying Computer Science. After a rewarding career in the computer industry, Sybil decided to try her hand at writing mysteries. Her short fiction has appeared in Mysterical-E and Spinetingler Magazine, among others. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she now lives in Southern California where she enjoys tole painting, studying ancient languages and spending time with friends and family. Find her at www.authorsybiljohnson.com.

Donis Casey

Donis is the author of six Alafair Tucker Mysteries. Her award-winning series, featuring the sleuthing mother of ten children, is set in Oklahoma during the booming 1910s. Donis is a former teacher, academic librarian, and entrepreneur. She lives in Tempe, AZ, with her husband, poet Donald Koozer. The latest Alafair Tucker novel, The Wrong Hill to Die On (Poisoned Pen Press, 2012), is available in paper or electronic format wherever books are sold. Readers can enjoy the first chapter of each book on her web site at www.doniscasey.com.

John R Corrigan

John R. Corrigan is D.A. Keeley, author of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Peyton Cote series, which is set along the Maine-Canada border. Bitter Crossing (summer 2014) will be the first of at least three novels in the series. Born in Augusta, Maine, he lives with his wife and three daughters at Northfield Mount Hermon School in western Massachusetts, where he is English department chair, a teacher, a hockey coach, and may very well be the only mystery writer in North America who also serves as a dorm parent to 50 teenage girls. A Mainer through and through, he tries to get to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, as often as possible. You can see what he's up to by visiting www.amazon.com/author/DAKeeley or dakeeleyauthor.blogspot.com or on Twitter (@DAKeeleyAuthor).

Charlotte Hinger

Charlotte Hinger is a novelist and Western Kansas historian. Convinced that mystery writing and historical investigation go hand in hand, she now applies her MA in history to academic articles and her depraved imagination to the Lottie Albright series for Poisoned Pen Press. charlottehinger.com

Frankie Bailey

Frankie Y. Bailey is a criminal justice professor who focuses on crime, history, and American culture. Her current project is a book about dress, appearance, and criminal justice. Her mystery series featuring crime historian Lizzie Stuart is set mainly in the South. Her near-future police procedural series featuring Detective Hannah McCabe is set in Albany, New York. Visit Frankie at frankieybailey.com.

Vicki Delany/Eva Gates

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of more than 25 books, including the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year Round Christmas cozy series, the Constable Molly Smith books, standalone novels of suspense, the Klondike Gold Rush series, and novellas for adult literacy. As Eva Gates, she is the author of the national bestselling Lighthouse Library cozy series from Penguin. Find Vicki at www.vickidelany.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor/

Mario Acevedo

Mario Acevedo is the author of the Felix Gomez detective-vampire series. His short fiction is included in the anthologies, You Don’t Have A Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens and Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, and in Modern Drunkard Magazine. Mario lives with a dog in Denver, CO. His website is marioacevedo.com.